FILM NOIR… Squid was trolling YouTube the other night, watching the usual assortment of Jackassian characters hurting themselves for LOLs, when a thought arose. Sucking popcorn butter from the old tentacles, Squid typed the following into YouTube’s search window: “How many Monterey Peninsula documentary filmmakers does it take to smack around a foreign film festival?” 


In the case of the Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales, it took just two: Steve Rosen and Terri DiBono, the award-winning film makers of Boyhood Shadows, about adult men dealing with the ramifications of childhood sexual abuse.


Rosen and DiBono were invited to show Boyhood Shadows at last year’s Swansea fest and travelled 7,000 miles for the event. There, according to their short Looking For An Audience, a YouTube account of the festival, they found an organizer seemingly more interested in self-promotion than in promoting films and filmmakers. 


Word of the bitingly funny short spread, all the way to festival vice president Michael Sheen (no relation to Charlie – the Welsh-born character actor is famous for his roles as David Frost in Frost/Nixon and Aro, the meanie vampire in the Twilight series) and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the Welsh beauty famous for being… well, c’mon, she’s Catherine Zeta-Jones. Sheen resigned as festival vice-president in late March, and Zeta-Jones pulled her support as a patron earlier this month. Sheen said in a written statement that a number of unresolved issues led to his resignation. The festival, though, goes on, as does Looking For An Audience, with more than 10,000 hits on YouTube.


CHECKS AND BALANCES… Balancing Squid’s checkbook is no fun. But reviewing Salinas’ check register is better than a barrel of sea monkeys.


There’s the necessary expenditures, like $32.95 to repair the office vacuum, a $361.78 vet bill for a K-9 cop (Squid hopes the pup’s OK) and $240 for Easter Supplies for the Firehouse Rec Center. Hmm, did the city sign off on a Fabergé egg, or just really pricey dye and stickers?


Squid’s not sure how to categorize $167.45 the cops spent on a LexisNexis search – although the next time Squid’s publisher refuses to fork over cash for the Internet research tool, Squid knows who to hit up for a little computer time.


There are also a few expenses that make Squid think, considering the city’s financial situation, which isn’t exactly overflowing with petty cash, WTF? Like the $1,775 check to Affordable Wiping Cloths, Inc. for “rags service.” What, city leaders can’t cut up their old T-shirts and use them to clean windows like the rest of us poor folk do?